Transforming Recruiting at DC Public Schools

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Transforming Recruiting at DC Public Schools

• Harvard Business School Kennedy School of
  Government
• Suzanne Anthony, Sarah Dillard, Kyle Goss, Jevan
  Soo

Presentation Document
February 21, 2009
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Executive summary

• There are multiple opportunities for DCPS across
  the recruiting value chain
• Finding and attracting experienced teachers is
  high challenge, high reward
• Long-term success will come from assembling
  proprietary access to talent
• DCPS must re-orient its recruiting culture toward
  relationship building and performance management
• The pace of success is contingent on the
  capabilities of the recruiting staff

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Agenda

• Assessment of current issues
• Recommendations
• Next steps for implementation

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DCPS is grappling with numerous issues in the
teacher quality value chain
Compensation Current union contract based on
seniority no performance incentives
Lack of alignment along teacher quality value
chain
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SOURCE The New Teacher Project, ELCC case
materials
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DCPS recruiting function can improve in several
key areas
Hiring quality teachers
Talent identification
Talent attraction
Selection
Placement
Cultivation
Key questions

• Who are the profiles we want?
• Where can we find them?

• What drives their choice of employer?
• How should we brand ourselves?

• What are the traits we seek?
• How do we assess them?

• How do we balance matching
• Our need
• Their choice

• How do we make them feel special?
• Who can best seal the deal?

Best practice examples
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Individual talent segments have strong potential
but specific challenges
FY08 total
Potential pool
Target population
Challenges

• Education schools
• Regional
• (e.g., DC, VA, MD)
• Top 10 national
• (e.g., Harvard, Columbia)
• Undergraduate
• (e.g., UTEACH)

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600 1,300 650

• Extremely high competition
• Hard to attract those from outside of DC metro
  area

Campus programs
Assumes 50 of 18-29 age teachers from campus
programs, 50 experienced 100 of 30 age
teachers experienced Top quartile of total
teacher population 25 of surrounding district
teachers assumed to be in under-performing
schools Top decile of population
Philadelphia example for other urban districts
SOURCE ELCC Case Materials
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Agenda

• Assessment of current issues
• Recommendations
• Next steps for implementation

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DCPS must communicate its unique value proposition

• Key messages
• Short-term
• Class is still in session (strategy unaffected
  by economic downturn, in contrast to other
  districts)
• Tap into national movement for change and public
  service
• Long-term
• High expectations, high rewards, high support for
  DCPS teachers
• We will help you find just the right opportunity

• Channels
• Paid media (print and online)
• DC-area publications (e.g., Washington Post,
  Washingtonian school issue, DC Metro, Education
  section of NYTimes for DC market)
• Education Week
• Job websites (e.g., Careerbuilder,
  Teacher-Teacher)
• Earned media
• Interviews, speeches, appearances by Michelle
  Rhee
• Interviews, speeches, appearances by Jason Kamras

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Attracting experienced teachers will require both
targeting existing and creating new talent pools
Monetary incentives contingent on new teacher
contract
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Campus approach should focus on building earlier
and deeper relationships
Earlier
Deeper

• Establish campus presence in fall (e.g., panel
  event)
• Launch summer undergraduate internship for rising
  seniors in certification programs
• Poll newly hired teachers in fall to nominate
  high-potential students on campus

• Strengthen working relationship with career
  services, e.g.,
• Feedback on brand
• Understanding about DCPS differentiation
• Partner with regional/local universities to add
  practitioner perspective to programs

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Improving selection process is critical to
ensuring quality of hires
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Selection more critical under new contract
because applications should spike
Incremental validity over General Mental
Ability Percent
Work sample tests
Structured interviewing

• Central district recruiting team
• Design assessment rubric based on new DC
  instructional framework
• Re-institute structured screening interviews with
  multiple techniques (e.g., sample instruction,
  role-play, discussion of teaching philosophy)

Job knowledge tests
Peer ratings
Reference checks
Unstructured interviewing
Job experience (years)

• Principals and school staff/teachers
• Train to do structured interviewing based on
  newly designed rubric

Years of education
Interests
Age
Data from meta-analysis of over 85 years of
selection research. Incremental validity defined
as the percentage increase in predictive accuracy
provided by the technique over and above a test
of general mental ability (which has a validity
of 51)
SOURCE Schmidt Hunter The Validity and
Utility of Selection Methods Practical and
Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research
Findings
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There are key questions to resolve around the
placement of candidates
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Increase cultivation of high-potential (HP)
applicants and offerees
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DCPS recruiting should shift to a long-term
performance culture

• Institute performance targets and tracking of key
  metrics
• Compile metrics into scorecards for district,
  school, and teacher type

Internal metrics

• Feedback surveys for all applicants on recruiting
  process
• Detailed entry interviews about recruiting
  experience
• Post-mortem interviews with offerees who turn
  DCPS down

Performance culture
Customer feedback
External benchmarking

• Performance comparison to other organizations
  where possible
• Competitive intelligence on other
  districts/schools recruiting approaches

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Example recruiting scorecard FY10 hires
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BY DISTRICT, SCHOOL, OR TEACHER TYPE
PROCESS MANAGEMENT
Applicants
Interviews
Offers
Hires
2,000
900
750
450
Average time lapse
2 weeks
1 week
3 weeks
HP
10
22
25
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TEACHER QUALITY
Average SAT score
1050
20
Better than last year
Average cert. years of experience
3
70
Same as last year
Average undergraduate GPA
3.15
Worse than last year
Average praxis score (IQR)
50 - 80
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DIVERSITY PROFILE
FY09 HP PERFORMANCE IN FIRST YEAR
Asian
Excellent
Other
10
Hispanic
20
Good
7
Female 80 Male 20
2
Black
31
60
Average
60
White
Weak
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Recruiting should reflect and inform other human
capital initiatives
Initiative
Relation to recruiting
SOURCE ELCC Case Materials
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Agenda

• Assessment of current issues
• Recommendations
• Next steps for implementation

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Key implementation tasks for aspirational 2009
recruiting plan
2009
Mar
Jun
May
Apr
Aug
Jul
Activity
Feedback and approval of plan
Staffing drives timing
Talent identification and attraction

• Create key marketing messages

• Execute targeted media strategy

• Develop and launch referral program

• Develop pilot DC STAR conference

• Launch summer undergrad internship

• Cultivate key partner relationships

Selection, placement, and cultivation

• Find seasonal help to screen CVs

• Develop structured screening criteria

• Pilot structured assessment techniques

• Experiment with placement innovations

• Assign key personnel to HP offerees

IT/Data analysis

• Update and upgrade website

• Select and implement CRM software

• Create and begin tracking scorecard

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Human capital organization needs to be aligned
behind key activities
Hiring quality teachers
Talent identification
Talent attraction
Selection
Placement
Cultivation
Staffing

• Strategic partnerships managers

• Hiring specialists (could be top PD helpers or
  retired star teachers)

• Analyst, Kamras, Henderson

• Kamras, Henderson, Rhee

Responsibilities

• Develop programs and relationships in order to
  dramatically increase awareness, familiarity,
  interest, and preference for DCPS as employer of
  talented teachers

• Screen applicants and lead identification of HP
  talent

• Explore potential innovations in teacher
  placement, e.g., team-based

• Personally follow up with HP offerees in order to
  convince as many as possible to accept their
  offers

Analyst Performance metrics forecasting
staffing model general analytical
support Communications Craft key recruiting
messages develop media strategy IT Selection,
design, and implementation of customer
relationship management software Webmaster Basic
fixes and upgrades
Cross-cutting staffing
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Discretionary budget needs are reasonable
Staffing costs not Included but critical
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Key stakeholders and potential reactions
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Immediate next steps for Monday morning!

• Seek feedback and approval from Rhee and key
  funders
• Determine staffing needs for recruiting team
• Assess existing team capabilities
• Draft necessary job descriptions
• Call consulting firm contacts to determine pro
  bono interest

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Appendix
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Referral program
Online submission
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SOURCE The New Teacher Project
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DCPS Teacher Summer Internship Program
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